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Country music singer-songwriter Carly Pearce has revealed that the second hardest day of her life was when she married her then fiancé, country singer Michael Ray, in her Nashville backyard. The American Idol alum told Bunnie XO’s Dumb Blonde podcast that the initial red flag in the relationship was that she knew she was getting married to the wrong person, since it wasn’t love but lust she was feeling.

Pearce detailed on the podcast that while her marriage to Michael Ray did not work out despite her initial belief that he was “the cutest person in the world,” she had no regrets, including on the day of their wedding in 2019. The No. 1 hitmaker who rose to fame for her singles Every Little Thing and Should’ve Known Better talked about how her relationship with Michael Ray started, as well as her feelings before, during, and after her wedding.

“It happened so quickly, and we got married in September of 2019,” the “Magic in the Moonlight” singer began on the podcast about her relationship with Michael Ray. “I was like, oh, this is the right decision. It was really all around us. I thought he was so cute. I’d heard he’s the nicest guy in the world. I invited him to my No. 1 party for Every Little Thing. Looking back on it, it was a hot and heavy lust. It wasn’t love. It was just passionate.”

The Grammy Award-winning artist said that she married the Tennessee-born singer to go the distance. “I got married to go the distance. When I married him, it was for the right reasons,” Pearce stated, contradicting the comment she previously made that the day she got married, she knew she should not have.

According to Pearce, the two did not have a strong foundation that is needed for marriage. “We didn’t have real conversations and didn’t really know about each other. We were kind of living this life that wasn’t really reality,” she said. She said that the moment they got married, she knew she should have never married him. “I knew the night I got married that I shouldn’t have. But I did,” she added.

Pearce had also cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a blessing in disguise. “I think the best thing that ever happened to me was COVID because it allowed me to deal with that in private. I probably would have stayed in it longer if I could have avoided it and not had to. … I was embarrassed when it happened … and I had shame around that and was heartbroken,” the Bowling for Soup singer continued.

Divorce, Rumors, and a Revelation of Worth

Carly Pearce filed for divorce from Michael Ray in March 2020, just eight months after the wedding. While the 31-year-old has kept her reasons for the divorce from the public, she said that she did not sign up for what her divorce with Michael Ray became. “It wasn’t what I signed up for. It just wasn’t the marriage that I knew I deserved. I knew that very quickly. Plenty happened to where it was very clear to me this was not, this just wasn’t a marriage,” she said.

In the same podcast, Bunnie XO and Pearce also briefly touched on rumors that Michael Ray cheated on her while they were together. The “Closer to You” singer did not confirm whether she was right or wrong, but she did not shy away from stating that the period when people were passing rumors about her was one of the hardest times in her life. “People have all their opinions, and, at first, that was so hard for me because I was like, ‘That’s not true, that’s not true, that’s not true. What he’s saying isn’t true. ‘”

She continued, “But, at the end of the day, my friends who walked that with me, they know. My parents know, and God knows, and that is enough. It’s enough.” However, she came to an epiphany that her experience with Michael Ray gave her strength and made her realize how strong she was. “I am in the happiest season of my life,” Pearce stated. “If I ever saw him, if he ever watches this, thank you, because you taught me more about myself. You taught me how strong I am. You put me through things that have made me better now. And I don’t wish him evil. I don’t wish anything on him. I’m so glad that I’m not in that anymore.”

She also added, “I think I was really shown just how much I care about myself. I actually really have a lot of self-worth, and that showed me that.”